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What DAC upgrade made you say “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better than my last DAC”?

As the title suggests, what was your overall system and DAC at the point where you bought only a new DAC and said “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better than my last DAC”?

I’m a novice and so many people talk about improvements from new equipment as if they were only listening to varying degrees of static until they bought more and more new equipment which added up to them finally being presented with music. It’s like Salome and the seven veils. But when does the last veil get peeled away? 

So what system did you have and what DAC did you swap in that made you say “DAMN!!!!”?

I guess I’m looking for night and day differences, not gradual progressions……


pip_helix
patrickdowns's avatar
patrickdowns
506 posts
 
Review of the Burl B2 Bomber: https://tapeop.com/reviews/gear/79/b2-bomber-adc-dac/
I confess that this seems really geared to mastering/recording engineers, and I have little idea what they are talking about on a technical level. Seems good though!

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chilehed's avatar
chilehed
200 posts
 
I recently upgraded from a Benchmark DAC3 HGC to a Lampizator Baltic 3. Given the Baltic 3 is 3X the price I expected an uptick in performance but I will say it way exceeded my expectations. First off, the B3 provides a very different presentation. I don't have the colorful adjectives to describe it but somehow there is more music and seemingly a dimension that allows you to see into the music. Being a tube based DAC I was concerned that pairing it with my tube based preamp that it might sound slow or syrupy. But that simply isn't the case, the B3 is extremely well balanced and sounds beautiful at low volume but it can jump, rock and boogie if you are up for some excitement.
jjss49's avatar
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jjss49
6,612 posts
 
when i found the 'on' switch on my denafrips terminator... i said "damn that sounds sooooo much better than my last dac", a chord dac that i blew 4 grand on

i could never find the damn on switch on that chord hugo tt2 - as a result, i always felt that one lacked air and impact and truth of timbre...  the brits make such crap these days  😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫
mahler123
3,296 posts
 
I went from using the DAC in my Oppo 105 to a Mytek Manhattan I. This may have been the sun ale biggest upgrade I ever made.  Interestingly both DACS used the same ESS Sabre Chip
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